Tigers to take field with new manager, new roster, new routines

Mar. 31, 2014

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Detroit Free Press Sports Writer

Detroit Tigers Manager Brad Ausmus speaks during a press conference at Comerica Park in Detroit before the team took the field for a workout on Sunday, March 30, 2014. Opening Day the Tigers play the Kansas City Royals on March 31, 2014. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/DFP

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First-year Tigers manager Brad Ausmus sat behind a table with a microphone in front of him in a designated interview room Sunday at Comerica Park, calmly answering questions from reporters before a voluntary team workout.

In an off-season full of changes, this was another new wrinkle.

Ausmus will talk to reporters after games in an interview setting, rather than from behind the desk in the manager’s office, as former manger Jim Leyland did.

Ausmus said he is looking forward to his first Opening Day as a manager.

“Still trying to get some odds and ends taken care of, just in terms of preparing for the first series against the Kansas City Royals,” Ausmus said.

“Overall, I feel very good about it, excited about Monday. It’ll be fun. It looks like the weather’s going to be decent, knock on wood.”

He has experienced Opening Day in Detroit in the past as a player. He said the one that sticks out most was the final Opening Day at Tiger Stadium in 1999.

“There must have been six or eight people jump on the field during the course of the game,” Ausmus said. “So, I know it’s kind of the Super Bowl here, Opening Day for the Tigers. There’s a lot of energy.”

Ausmus, who played for 18 seasons, can relate to what rookies such as Nick Castellanos and Tyler Collins will go through today when they hear their name called during pregame introductions.

“I remember my first Opening Day,” Ausmus said. “I remember how excited guys were throughout my career when they made a team for the first time. A lot of people don’t get to experience it, so it’s something they should enjoy.”

Ausmus isn’t saying much about bullpen roles. Asked specifically who he would go with in the seventh or eighth inning, he said: “No, I don’t think anything’s locked in there. We’re going to have to see how it goes as we start playing games. I have an idea going into each game, how it stands. It could be in a little bit of a flux, unless someone grabs a role and runs with it. Any of the roles.”

Ausmus, 44, made some changes to spring training, and the players seemed to enjoy some of the new wrinkles.

He added some new drills during spring training and bonding activities, like a basketball competition.

“It was a lot more fun,” Torii Hunter said of spring training. “Guys kind of opened up to him. I think he started to fit in around the second week, cracking jokes. The meetings went smooth. We had a lot of fun with him. That’s what spring training is for, all the new guys, players that come over, the new manager, new coaches — you kind of get used to everybody and get that chemistry going. I definitely think that’s what happened.”

Hunter, 38, said “you can’t compare” Ausmus and Leyland. He said Leyland has 50 years of experience in the game and Ausmus likely will lean on the former manager at times.

Later, Hunter did compare them in one way: “Jim Leyland was like my dad. Brad is more like a younger brother.”

Asked about the difference between him and Leyland, Ausmus told reporters in Washington, D.C. on Saturday: “It feels all right, but if they don’t like me, they’re certainly not going to say, ‘Hey, I don’t like you.’ So you’d really have to ask them. I thought the camp went pretty well, but as far as how players looked at it compared to other spring trainings, I can’t answer that.”